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Goes without saying that every Roosters fan loves this guy, his ability is undeniable. For so long I have considered him up there with Papalii and Fonua-Blake as the best front rower in the game.
However he’s been well below his best this year, constantly being found out defensively and seems to be really struggling to make an impact in his carries and on top of that he’s made some really fundamental errors at key points of the game when carrying out of our own end.
The underlying numbers tell a very similar story too;
Averaging 116m per game which is his worst return since 2016
His tackle efficiency is 87.8% - the first time in his career it’s ever been below 90%
And he’s made 7 errors in 11 games - his worst return in his career
By no means am I writing him off, it’s not uncommon for props to to go through periods of fluctuating form but I just wonder if he’s carrying an injury or if there’s a thought out there that maybe the speed of the game means these types of power runners with less mobility are not going to be as valuable anymore moving forward. It’s really hard to draw a comparison with Papalii and Fonua-Blake who are very similar in style and build as they’ve played such little footy.
I thought he had his best game this season against Canberra, he seemed to be given a licence from Robbo to run a little wider of the ruck but it was his uncharacteristic read in defence that lead to the Horsburgh try and he came up with another basic error early int he game on yardage carry so hard to tell whether it was genuine improvement or just playing against a weaker opposition as there were still signs there of a guy who’s struggling.
Does anyone know if he’s carrying an injury?
However he’s been well below his best this year, constantly being found out defensively and seems to be really struggling to make an impact in his carries and on top of that he’s made some really fundamental errors at key points of the game when carrying out of our own end.
The underlying numbers tell a very similar story too;
Averaging 116m per game which is his worst return since 2016
His tackle efficiency is 87.8% - the first time in his career it’s ever been below 90%
And he’s made 7 errors in 11 games - his worst return in his career
By no means am I writing him off, it’s not uncommon for props to to go through periods of fluctuating form but I just wonder if he’s carrying an injury or if there’s a thought out there that maybe the speed of the game means these types of power runners with less mobility are not going to be as valuable anymore moving forward. It’s really hard to draw a comparison with Papalii and Fonua-Blake who are very similar in style and build as they’ve played such little footy.
I thought he had his best game this season against Canberra, he seemed to be given a licence from Robbo to run a little wider of the ruck but it was his uncharacteristic read in defence that lead to the Horsburgh try and he came up with another basic error early int he game on yardage carry so hard to tell whether it was genuine improvement or just playing against a weaker opposition as there were still signs there of a guy who’s struggling.
Does anyone know if he’s carrying an injury?
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